Gurgaon: Evaluation of e-tenders for liquor vends on March 15

The government has said that GST will not be levied on liquor licence fees this year

this year, the format of the auction will remain the same for IMFL (Indian-made foreign liquor) and Country liquor. There won’t be different counters for the IMFL.(Parveen Kumar/HT PHOTO)

The Haryana government started the process of allotment of liquor vends through e-tendering bids across the state on Saturday.

In Gurgaon, the process for allotment of 246 liquor vends will take place at the Mini Secretariat in the presence of deputy commissioner, two deputy excise and taxation commissioners (DETC) and DETC, sales tax/GST, on Thursday.

In a relief to the licensee this year, there will be no GST on liquor license fees. The decision was taken on Saturday during the 26th meeting at Vigyan Bhawan, Delhi where a clarification was issued that the GST cannot be levied on licences for liquor.

However, this year, the format of the auction will remain the same for IMFL (Indian-made foreign liquor) and Country liquor. There won’t be different counters for the IMFL. Although a vend can opt to serve both IMFL and country liquor or either of the two, the licence fee will remain the same.

The Gurgaon excise department has already started receiving e-tenders for 246 liquor shops from across the city. The evaluation of liquor vends will take place after 5pm and the highest bidder will be allotted the zone as per the bidding on Thursday.

The state has been divided into three groups for the process of e-tendering this year and Gurgaon city falls in Group A.

There are 41 zones, including East (19) and West (22) areas of Gurgaon and each zone comprises a maximum of six liquor vends which are allowed to operate, and, in urban zones, in addition to this, two sub vends are also allowed in each zone.

The participation fee for bidders is ₹75,000 per zone and is non-refundable. The earnest money will have to be deposited as per the zone. If the bid amount is below ₹5 crore, a bidder has to deposit ₹20 lakh, which will be adjusted in the security amount. If the bid for the zone is between ₹5 crore and ₹10 crore, then the bidder has to deposit ₹40 lakh.

Deputy Commissioner of Excise and Taxation of Gurgaon (West) H C Dahiya, said that as per the policy, a licensee is entitled to sell both country liquor and IMFL at one individual vend. This became a practice with the implementation of the new liquor policy last year.

“We have also directed the licensee to ensure that the vend is not within 500 metres of national and state highways,” Dahiya said.

However, this year, 10 % liquor vends are reserved for Scheduled Caste (SC) and 5% for the Backward Class. In Gurgaon, four zones, including 24 vends, are reserved for the SC and two zones, including 12 vends, are reserved for the backward class.

Also, this year, the reserve price for a single L1BF licence is for ₹62.5 crore, which was the highest bid last year against a reserve price of ₹50 lakh.

The state excise department earned ₹5,000 crore in revenue in fiscal 2016 -17 and have set a revenue target of ₹6,100 crore for the financial year 2017-18. Currently, IMFL is sold on the basis of the minimum retail price decided by the trader or the retailer.

Liquor shops in malls across Gurgaon will remain the same.

This year, the tendering process and evaluation of bids was done electronically. The process of e-tendering was started on March 11 and is open for bidders till 3pm on March 13.

“The licensee will also have no limit when it comes to stocking up on IMFL and country liquor. They can stock according to the demand in the area. The excise department has given them the flexibility for the same,” Sneh Lata Yadav, DETC (East), said.

The department will also form an ‘ Excise Preventive Force’ to curb illegal sale of liquor this year.